Anti-Muslim racism: what exactly is it? And what does it have to do with club culture?
Especially in the current context, where the situation in Palestine/Israel is also affecting communities within the German and Berlin club scenes, it is important to raise awareness of prejudices and break down stereotypes against Muslim and Muslim-appearing individuals, as well as to amplify the diverse voices of their communities.
The first part of the workshop focuses on defining anti-Muslim racism and raising awareness of where it is reproduced in society and within club culture and club operations. In the second part, strategies for addressing anti-Muslim racism in club culture will be developed together with the participants to protect and empower people from the affected communities.
The goal is to support and guide club culture stakeholders in reflecting on instances of exclusion directed at people perceived as Muslim, as well as culturally and religiously practicing Muslims. Furthermore, the workshop will explore how to create safer spaces and establish trained support structures within clubs and club culture contexts that can be contacted in cases of (anti-Muslim) racist discrimination. Another goal is for club organizers to increasingly incorporate Muslim and non-white perspectives into decision-making structures over the long term and to implement these in their door and programming policies.
Friday, June 21, 2024, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Berlin
The workshop is scheduled to last 5 hours, including breaks, and will be conducted in German. No prior knowledge is required.
Anti-racism and empowerment trainer Jamila Al-Yousef and Islamic and cultural studies scholar Saud Alzaid will lead the workshop.
Jamila is a musician, coach, process facilitator, and consultant specializing in empowerment, power-sharing, and intersectional/anti-racist cultural work. As a Palestinian living in the diaspora, she founded the decolonial Arab* Underground program at the Fusion Festival and established the Welcome Board to support refugee musicians in the state of Lower Saxony.
Since 2019, Jamila has been advising cultural institutions in Baden-Württemberg and elsewhere as part of a program run by the Ministry of Science, Art, and Research on multi-year, discrimination-sensitive inclusion processes. In these initiatives, she provides foundational training on intersectionality and power dynamics—for example, regarding anti-racist cultural work—and develops codes of conduct/ codes of conflict, assists with the implementation of anti-racism and anti-discrimination clauses and the establishment of anti-discrimination offices, advises on discrimination-sensitive job postings, trains security personnel in anti-bias practices at the door, advises on the development of programs such as community arts, and supports the development and implementation of awareness-raising concepts.
Saud grew up in Kuwait in an Islamic religious environment, studied in the United States, and then moved to Germany. He earned his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin (FU), where he wrote his dissertation on the radical politicization of Saudi youth within the Salafist movement. During his studies, Saud was heavily involved in the FU ASTA’s Department for International Students and Students of Color. During this time, he founded a counseling center for students of color with asylum backgrounds. Saud’s current teaching at the UdK focuses on Islamic aesthetics, the representation of Muslims in the West, trends in African American Islam, and intersectional practices. He is also currently the curator of the art and culture track at the Chaos Computer Club and has given numerous public lectures on racism, political Islam, and Islamophobia, for example at the Re:publica conference, disruption labs, the Video Game Museum Berlin, the Berlin Biennale, the Academy of Arts, and the Center for Art and Urbanism.
You can register by email: awareness@clubcommission.de
To complete your registration, we need the following information: name, organization, job title, email address, and phone number.
The workshop room can only be reached via a long flight of stairs, some of which lack handrails.
A program offered by the Awareness Academy of the Club Culture Hub at Clubcommission Berlin e.V., supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, Musicboard Berlin GmbH, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – “Strengthening Innovation Potential in Culture – INP-III.”